Considering how trends tend to cycle through the generations, such as clothing styles coming back into fashion a couple generations after falling out of favor, I have a sneaking suspicion that we will soon witness a generation of kids / young adults who shun the excessive infiltration of high-tech gadgetry in society.

The youth of today are already abandoning Facebook in droves, seeing it (rightly so) as being populated predominantly by their parents’ generation. Granted, today’s youth have not yet gone down the anti-technology path. If anything, they are even more entrenched into the ever increasing cyborgization of formerly free human beings. And yet, my spidey senses are telling me that a sea change is approaching in the relationship between people and high-tech gadgets.

One only has to lift one’s eyes momentarily away from the glowing, addictive light of one’s latest battery-charged appendage, and glace around at the waves upon waves of mind-numbed zombie robots, walking down the sidewalk, bumping into each other, oblivious to all except the latest ten-quillionth variation of grumpy cat scowling at the camera to notice how ridiculous this whole generation has really become.

Seriously, the resemblance to a herd of lemmings in sheep’s clothing is staggering.

I remember how my grandparents (who grew up during the Great Depression) thought that being able to buy already-ground coffee in the grocery store was a symbol of the advancement of society. They never could understand why I would want to deliberately buy unground coffee beans, which I would then have to grind myself before using. For crying out loud, that’s what their parent’s generation had to do! They seriously thought I had culturally regressed.

If they were alive today, I suspect they would be right there in the middle of the zombie hordes, smashing windows and eating the brains of the few remaining people who hadn’t yet succumbed to the inevitable.

But enough about my grandparents … My point is that I think all this hyper-fixation of being constantly on-line, constantly plugged in, and thereby constantly under the direct surveillance of the NSA and the new Orwellian police state will very soon be cast off by a younger and smarter generation who grows up seeing the ridiculous nature of it all and who deliberately begins to shun technology.

This new generation may very well be the generation that ends up saving the human race from destroying itself. Even if the way they do it is by hiding out in underground caves, shielded from the prying eyes of the global spy organizations and, by sheer accident of fate, shielded from the zombifying radiation of all those effing smart phones.

Like this:

Now that I have a novel out there in the world, where it will stand or fall on its own merits, I’m faced with the issue of how to feel about negative reviews.

So far, the reviews of Sierra Girls have been overwhelmingly positive, and I think that says a lot about the quality of the novel. I have got a few bits of negative feedback, both publicly and privately, on various aspects.

The negatives usually amount to specific hobbyhorses that people would react to in any book that they read. A few people don’t like some of the colorful language in the book. And some dislike mentions of sex or sexuality—hard to avoid in a book about a serial rapist.

In both of these cases, I honestly don’t see these as negatives at all. Different people like different things, and dislike different things. Some folks are hung up on bad language. It’s normal. I know many people in real life who feel the same way. It’s just a preference, like not liking the flavor of onions. If occasional bad language in a book puts people off, that’s just the way it is.

I find this sort of feedback about personal tastes or preferences helpful in many ways. It lets other people reading the review know that the book contains language that some folks consider distasteful. This will warn people who dislike that sort of thing, and it might also entice some others who like, or at least are not put off, by language or sex or whatever.

The sort of negative feedback that seems more significant to me is when people say that they didn’t understand some part of the plot, or that they found some part of the book to be unrealistic, or that the story didn’t flow well in certain areas. I really appreciate this sort of feedback, because it helps me to see the story from someone else’s perspective, and to see where there might be real mechanical gaps or missteps on my part as an author.

Glowing feedback is always nice, especially when it is supported with specific elements from the story that people genuinely like. Negative feedback is usually always helpful as well, whether of the “I don’t like onions” variety or something more substantive. So I don’t really see it as negative at all.

All of this feedback is very encouraging to me as I’m working on my next novel. It helps keep me focused on what the real reason for writing is, at least for me. Providing people with enjoyment.

Like this:

Hi all. In the last few days, my suspense novel Sierra Girls received a handful of new positive reviews.

Ritagrace says: “This was a breath-stopping suspense and mystery about a young girl kidnapped by a sadistic sex criminal.”

Charles Ray (aka Avid Reader) says: “This is actually two stories that proceed along parallel lines until; on the one hand we have Gabriel’s desperate efforts to find his daughter; on the other, Michelle’s decision to try and save herself after she discovers that she’s not the first occupant of the dungeon. . . . The parallel stories whiz along like twin roller coasters, until they finally intersect in an explosive finale that will leave you both breathless and relieved.”

My favorite so far is this bit where the reviewer mentions something she doesn’t like about the book—

Karina Kantas (aka Enigma) says: “The book started off as an easy read, but by the middle the writing started getting flowery. Now there’s nothing wrong with that kind of writing, Stephen King is famous for it. I just prefer an easy read. Many enjoy more descriptive passages. I just feel it ruins the flow and prefer to stick to the plot.”

I’m taking this as a positive, for my writing to be compared to Stephen King’s. To me that is the greatest compliment it can receive, as Stephen King is a writing god!

It’s nice to hear some real reader feedback. So far, everyone who has reviewed the book has said that they enjoyed it a lot. This makes me quite happy, as that is the entire purpose of writing for me.

Thanks to all who have read, and especially to those who have reviewed, Sierra Girls.

I went to the pages for those books, and each one has about a hundred items listed under Also-Bought, but not mine. So I guess I haven’t made that cut yet. Seems like I’m giving free advertising for those books but not getting any in return. On the other hand, if people are viewing my book’s page and they see those books, and are familiar with those other authors, then it might be a boost.

On the whole, I think it’s a positive development. It makes my book seem somewhat more popular.

Like this:

I was hoping to have finished my prep work on my next novel by now, but I’m still not quite there. Sometimes life intervenes with our plans. Stuff like work, taking my kid to the doctor, and changing burnt out headlights on my car just seem to happen randomly. Nonetheless, I have made great progress.

I went through all my major and minor characters and “interviewed” them. This is always fun because I learn a lot about them, and they start speaking to me in their own voices. After this I started the process of expanding the list of scenes / chapters which I had painstakingly created after a great deal of brainstorming.

This basic outline had 39 single-sentence bullet points, one per scene, totalling essentially one full single-spaced page. My goal was to expand each of these one-liners into a paragraph of maybe five to ten sentences. Adding this extra bit of detail to my basic thoughts works wonders to tease out deeper ideas and to discover plot gotchas early on.

As of now, I have turned that one page into fourteen pages of detail, and I’m only halfway through the outline. Most of these scenes expanded to the anticipated paragraph length. A couple grew to almost a full page each, and one clocked in at four pages. That particular scene has a lot of crucial details in it that will end up driving the rest of the plot, so I really wanted to get all my ideas down in black and white before carrying on.

I’d like to move faster on this, but at the same time I don’t want to rush it. This is a book I’ve been wanting to write for many many Earth years, so it’s very exciting to actually see it emerge before my eyes. My current estimate of when I’ll complete this process is … about another week. After I finish the detailed outline, I have a few more to-do items, which I think really help to make the scenes crisp and exciting for readers.

Like this:

For the next 20 days (through 11/26/2013), you can download a FREE copy of my suspense novel Sierra Girls from the Story Cartel web site. Then, if you write an honest review of the book, you will have a chance to win one of three $10 Amazon gift cards that I’ll be giving away as prizes.

Why am I doing this? Pretty simple. Nowadays the primary way people choose to buy e-books is by reading the reviews of others who have read the same book. This is true for just about anything you buy, online or offline. Because of this, I as an author am trying to find creative ways to encourage people to read and then to review my novel.

So, if you like to read AMAZING Suspense / Thrillers, you have nothing to lose with this deal. Go right now. CLICK HERE! Download the book. Read it. Love it. And post an honest write-up about your experience. Seriously, go do it.

Like this:

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I think November should be declared national Dental Checkup month.

For anyone interested, my debut suspense thriller Sierra Girls is gradually building up a readership. I’m clocking in quite a few sales, many more on Amazon than on Smashwords. However, the book has finally made it into the Smashwords premium catalog, which means that it is now being distributed to many different ebook vendors, including Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Page Foundry, and Oyster. It will take some time before it is really available in these different systems. It is also due to be distributed to Sony, Diesel, Baker & Taylor Blio, Baker-Taylor Axis360, and Flipkart. There is also a distribution channel called Library Direct, which libraries use to buy ebooks to lend to their patrons. Honestly, I haven’t heard of half of these places, but I will be watching them now to see when Sierra Girls gets listed for sale. Stay tuned.